A computing device may output an alert indicative of the receipt of a communication. For example, a computing device may output an audible, visual, haptic or other type of alert each time the device receives a new communication or other type of notification data. Some computing devices can be manually configured to output specific, predefined alerts (e.g., a specific ringtone, vibration pattern, etc.) when certain types of communications are received or when communications are received from specific senders. However, due to the tedium involved with manually assigning alerts to communication types or specific senders in a contact list, this function may go unused or if used, the observable differences between different predefined alerts may be so slight that the predefined alerts alone provide little to no context as to who may be contacting the user. Further, different computing devices may have similar or even identical libraries of predefined alerts. If a computing device is manually configured to output a unique, predefined alert for each contact in device contact list, the output of a unique, predefined alert may be less effective in obtaining the attention of a user when the user in the presences of other computing devices (e.g., in a public space) that could also be the source of that particular alert.